Gone
by esama
Summary: Atemu has accepted that he is dead and gone. And one day Yugi will do the same. Oneshot drabble


**Gone**

Atemu blinked slowly, looking around with confusion. Everything was slow as if it was a video slowed down and everything was grey like it was an old picture. He found himself smiling at those notions, knowing that he had learned about videos and pictures from Yugi. Things like pictures and videos hadn't existed all those years ago in that country of sand and dunes… back three thousand years ago when he had been a pharaoh. When he had been alive.

But he was dead now. He had been dead longer than he could remember, thousands of years. Of course he had known it somewhere in the back of his mind, he had just never worded it. What else could someone like him be? From the beginning he had been nothing but a colourless spirit haunting an ancient puzzle, given link to living world in form of Mutô Yugi. He hadn't had a body of his own, so how could he be alive? But no one had ever said it. It had been there every time anyone had called him a spirit, but no one had ever pointed out that he was dead.

But now he knew and accepted it.  
He looked around. He was standing in a hall. It wasn't one of those grand places of adobe-bricks covered in limestone of his memory - no, this was certainly not ancient Egypt. But it was a hall nonetheless. Hall leading to few rooms from staircase. Hall leading to the one room of any importance. Hall leading to Yugi's room. He was back in the Kame Game store. It was impossible, but he was back in Yugi's home.

He moved forward to go and see if Yugi was in his room. He didn't know how or why he was here, but he wanted to see his Aibou. His movements were slow and dragging as if he was trying to walk through heavy wind or water. The hall seemed endlessly long and everything was so horribly still… but he still managed to get to the door. Slowly he took hold of the handle and turned. It clicked and the sound seemed to echo into infinity. Then the door began to open sluggishly, the creaking of the hinges sounding like thunder.

He heard voices. They were echoing and echoing as he stepped slowly forward and into the room. It wasn't a discussion in normal sense - and he couldn't make out what the voices were speaking about. It was coming from a television, which was impossibly bright in the otherwise dark room, throwing strange colours and looming shadows to the normally light coloured walls. The house seemed eerie and threatening as Atemu turned his face to look at the television.

He saw himself in the screen… but it wasn't him. It was him before realisations and return of memories, him who hadn't known his name. Yami Yugi was in the television, looking strong and proud as he held up his hand which was being cradled by a Duelling Disk. He was saying something, but Atemu couldn't make out the words, and soon the image shifted. It was a video of a duel. Yami Yugi's duel against one of the many opponents he and Yugi had had.

It seemed like it had happened ages ago, those duels. Ages ago in completely another life which was long gone now. In time he couldn't return to, in place which had been levelled by time, to people who seemed foreign now. And he, Atemu, wasn't supposed to be here. He had left this place behind. He had accepted his death. He wasn't supposed to be here.

Then he heard another voice. Broken voice which did not come from the television. Turning slowly around and searching the source of the voice with his eyes, he saw a form lying in the bed. Yugi's bed. Yugi's form. Sobbing. Confused and then worried, Atemu blinked and begun to approach the broken form. His Aibou was hugging a pillow with his face buried in to it. Even as he cried he was listening to the video. Listening to Yami Yugi's voice.

Atemu sat to the bed beside his partner, reaching his hand to touch the boy. It never reached, he couldn't touch his Aibou. Bowing his head he turned to look at the video again as Yami Yugi yelled something at someone, whom ever he was duelling with. The voice caused a shudder run through Yugi's body beside Atemu before the boy broke out to new sobs.

Yugi was crying after him. Atemu bowed his head and closed his eyes. He wasn't supposed to be here in this place now. He had left this place and his Aibou behind… why was he here now? To see what his parting had done to his precious Aibou? As if he hadn't known it already. Yugi had been so attached to him; of course he had known that it would end up this way. But he had also known that with the help of his friends, Yugi would overcome this loss, he would rise over it and grow stronger. Like true Duellist. Why were the gods tormenting him by making him see this?

Turning guilty eyes back to the sobbing form, Atemu sighed and reached his hand for the boy again. This time it reached and he settled his palm over the boy's shoulder. Yugi didn't seem to notice, but that did not surprise the pharaoh in the least. Rubbing the shoulder with his thumb, the spirit reached forward and wrapped his other arm around his broken partner, for a moment sheltering him from everything.

"You will grow strong, Yugi. I know you will," he said quietly, his words echoing and echoing. "I know you. You won't let anything keep you down for long."

He sat up again and looked at the video where Yami Yugi was now holding a card, educating his opponent about it. Atemu smiled sadly, knowing that Yugi was already healing. He wouldn't have been listening to the video if he hadn't been. Looking down to the boy one final time, the dead man stroked his hand over the boy's tense shoulders and stood up.

"It's not necessarily a sad thing, death," he whispered, not knowing if he was talking to himself or Yugi. "I existed as a wraith on the edges of the living world for too long. Yugi… everyone dies. It was my time to go. You know it was," he raised his chin. "And you know that even if I'm gone, it doesn't mean that I've left you. I'm still watching over you. I always will."

He had accepted his death. Yugi was doing his best to do the same. It wouldn't be easy on the boy, it wouldn't be painless… but it was necessary. Everyone died sometime. And Atemu had been gone longer than he had known it himself.

-

And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn  
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice  
Just know that I'm looking down on you smiling  
And I didn't feel a thing, so baby don't feel no pain  
Just smile back

-

T.T well, if that wasn't... pitiful. My apologies for, well, general angstyness and possible grammar errors.


End file.
